Big Eyes

Year:  2014

Director:  Tim Burton

Screenplay:  Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski

Starring:  Amy Adams, Christoph Waltz, Danny Huston, Jon Polito, Krysten Ritter, Jason Schwartzman, Terence Stamp

Running Time:  106 minutes

Genre:  Drama, comedy, biography

In 1958 aspiring artist Margaret Ulrich (Adams) leaves her husband and travels with her young daughter to San Francisco, where she meets unsuccessful but charismatic painter Walter Keane (Waltz), and they soon get married.  While Walter paints nondescript landscapes, Margaret specialises in pictures of waif-like children with oversized eyes.  As Walter continues to have no success with his own works, he begins to pass off Margaret's work as his own (she signs her paintings simply as "Keane").  The paintings become extremely successful, and Walter becomes something of a celebrity, but Margaret is increasingly dissatisfied at doing all of the work and getting none of the credit.

You may not be familiar with Margaret and Walter Keane and the slightly creepy paintings of sad children with huge eyes (which look now for all the world like the sinister Black Eyed Kids of modern urban legend).  However in the 1960s Walter Keane was a big celebrity, and the paintings were hugely popular.  It turned out of course that the paintings were all the work of his wife, Margaret.  It's a strange and interesting story, and this is an interesting film.  Director Tim Burton and screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski had previously explored the odd fringes of popular culture with Ed Wood (1994), and while this shares the often humorous take and appreciation of kitsch, Big Eyes is not as distinctive or impressive.  In fact it is a surprisingly conventional film from Tim Burton who made his name with bizarre, grotesque and slightly surreal films, the main stylistic element here is that everything seems overly bright and colourful.  Amy Adams gives a muted, nuanced performance as Margaret Keane, but Christoph Waltz goes completely over the top as the charismatic conman Walter Keane, who comes across as something between a gameshow host and a sleazy used car salesman, he constantly talks about his travels throughout France, and it turns out that he spent all of a week there, and when it come to art he has far more confidence than talent.   Together Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz seem to be making two completely different films.  Amy Adams, a drama about a woman trying to find her voice, and Christoph Waltz, a broad comedy about a lovable rogue.  The film is interesting and always entertaining, but it is quite conventional.  It's certainly worth your time, but probably won't linger very long after the end credits have rolled.  

Amy Adams in Big Eyes
   

No Time to Die

 Year of Release: 2021

Director:  Cary Joji Fukunaga

Screenplay:  Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Cary Joji Fukunaga, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge, from a story by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Cary Joji Fukunaga, based on characters created by Ian Fleming

Starring:  Daniel Craig, Rami Malek, Léa Seydoux, Lashana Lynch, Ben Wishaw, Naomie Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Christoph Waltz, Ralph Fiennes, Ana de Armas

Running Time:  163 minutes

Genre:  Action, espionage

James Bond (Craig) has retired from active service for MI6, but his domestic bliss with Madeleine Swann (Seydoux) is interrupted when he suspects her of selling him out to the evil SPECTRE organisation.  Five years later, Bond finds himself drawn into a race between MI6 and the CIA to rescue a kidnapped scientist from the clutches of SPECTRE, but finds himself in a battle to save the world from a deadly weapon that has fallen into the hands of ruthless terrorist Safin (Malek).

So we have been expecting you, Mr. Bond.  And indeed we have.  Work in the film began in early 2016, and it was originally due to be released at the end of 2019, but was delayed a few months to avoid competition with Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker (2019), but was delayed a couple of times more due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In fact it seems like I have seen the trailer every time I have been to the cinema in the past two years.  Was it worth the wait?  Yes, it was worth it.  The film has all the traditional elements of classic James Bond:  glamour, exotic locations, plenty of action, humour, gadgets and a megalomaniacal villain, but it updates it to appeal to a modern audience.  The female characters are no longer just "Bond girls", there to be decoration and not much more, they are more than a match for Bond, and are the most complex, ambiguous characters.  Also supporting characters such as Q (Ben Wishaw), Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and M (Ralph Fiennes) have much bigger roles than were traditional.  This is likely to be Daniel Craig's last James Bond film, and if so, this is a perfect way to end Craig's run as 007.  The action is exciting, and, despite having a running time of almost three hours, it's well paced and the narrative keeps moving along.  Rami Malek makes a satisfactorily sinister villain.  Léa Seydoux reprises her role as the tragic Madeleine Swann from the previous Bond film Spectre (2015) and provides the film with it's heart.  Lashana Lynch is good as the new "00 agent" who acts as Bond's partner / rival and possible successor.  This mayn't be the best of the James Bond films, but it is certainly one of the best ones,  the thing is that it's hard to see where the Bond films will go from here, but it will be interesting to see what the future holds.

Daniel Craig and Ana de Armas in No Time to Die
  

Alita: Battle Angel

Year of Release:  2019
Director:  Robert Rodriguez
Screenplay:  James Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis, based on the manga series Gunnm (aka Battle Angel Alita) by Yukito Kishiro
Starring:  Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Jennifer Connelly, Mahershala Ali, Ed Skrein, Jackie Earle Haley, Keean Johnson
Running Time:  122 minutes
Genre:  Science-fiction, action, cyberpunk

The year is 2563, three hundred years after a catastrophic war known as "The Fall" decimated Earth. The vast majority of the inhabitants of Earth live in huge decaying metropolises, such as Iron City, while the chosen few ascend to the wealthy floating city of Zalem.  While scouting an Iron City junkyard, cyborg scientist Dr. Dyson Ido (Waltz) discovers a dismembered humanoid cyborg (Salazar).  Ido is able to rebuild and reactivate the cyborg who he dubs "Alita", and who has advanced combat skills but no memory of her true identity or previous life.  As she tries to recover her memories and identity, Alita has to survive in the deadly Iron City, particularly when she discovers that powerful people will stop at nothing to see her dead.

The Japanese manga series Gunnm (known in the West as Battle Angel Alita) was first published in 1990, and had already produced several spin-offs and animated adaptations.  Writer, director and producer James Cameron had been a long time fan of the manga series, and after a long period in development, handed the reins to director Robert Rodriguez. 
I have never read the manga or seen any of the previous adaptations, so I cannot speak to how faithful or not the film is.  It is visually stunning, creating a grimly beautiful new world in Iron City, and incredible, cyborg creatures.  The action is frenetic, spectacular, genuinely exciting, and surprisingly violent.  Despite sometimes cliched dialogue, and a lack of a conclusive ending (it's almost bound to lead to sequels), this is a beguiling and fascinating new world, and Rosa Salazar is brilliant in the title role, being both heartrendingly vulnerable and a ruthlessly efficient warrior.

Rosa Salazar is Alita:  Battle Angel